Senate Health Care Talks Inch Forward as Key Negotiators Say They’re Near a Deal

A bipartisan Senate group expects as soon as next week to release a draft of legislation that would extend expired Affordable Care Act subsidies for two years, Sen. Bernie Moreno, a key negotiator, told reporters Wednesday.

“We’re in the red zone, but that doesn’t mean a touchdown,” Moreno said. “It could be a 95-yard fumble. So we’re right there.”

The Senate plan, led by Moreno and Sen. Susan Collins, would reinstate the ACA tax credits that expired at the end of 2025, but implement some new restrictions including income caps and anti-fraud measures. It would also expand access to health-savings accounts and introduce cost-sharing reduction measures.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters Wednesday that there have been “productive conversations” regarding the bipartisan health-care plan, but added that negotiations were still ongoing.

“They’re working hard at trying to find something that threads those various needles,” Thune said. “But as of right now, I don’t think there’s a landing spot just yet. But the Dems that have been in the meetings and Republicans both have been having constructive roles.”

The Senate health-care plan comes as the House is expected to pass its own bill Thursday to extend the Affordable Care Act subsidies for three years.

Senators are working with a tight deadline –– open enrollment for ACA plans is set to end Jan. 15, and more than 20 million Americans saw price spikes in the new year. Some senators are proposing extending the enrollment period until March.

“I suppose it depends on whether or not they can find a deal,” Thune told reporters Tuesday of extending the enrollment period.

Health care has become a hot-button issue in recent months, particularly after the historic 43-day government shutdown when Senate Democrats withheld their votes in an attempt to force Republicans to extend the expiring ACA credits. Ultimately, a small group of Senate Democrats caved, allowing the government to reopen. But members of that group, alongside a number of Senate Republicans who’ve proposed their own plans, have continued to push for bipartisan talks on health care in the hopes of finding compromise.

Thune said senators are still debating several sticking points, including reforms, a bridge to health-savings accounts and disagreement over the Hyde Amendment, the long-standing component in health bills that prevents federal funds from being used for abortions. Democrats say the provision does not need to be addressed, while Republicans want to see the amendment maintained.

“There’s no need to come to a compromise [on Hyde],” Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, a key player in the talks, told reporters Wednesday. “It’s already been dealt with in the Affordable Care Act. There’s very specific language on how that is dealt with.”

President Donald Trump told House Republicans on Tuesday that the party should be “flexible on Hyde.” Collins said that there is a subgroup of senators negotiating the issue as part of the health-care plan, but that she is not a part of it — she is instead focusing on “the two-year extension, the income cap and the minimum payment.”

Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin told reporters Wednesday that he’s seen the Collins–Moreno group make progress but that nothing is final just yet. The bill would need 60 votes in the Senate, and lawmakers involved in negotiations also have to keep the House in mind, where Republicans hold an especially slim majority.

“There’s still some major stumbling blocks,” Durbin said. “I’m hopeful that they’ll come up with something.”

But Durbin too warned that Hyde could complicate the debate: “If they want to make this an abortion issue, I’m afraid that’s the end of the conversation.”

Sen. Markwayne Mullin told NOTUS on Wednesday that “it’s maybe a 50/50 path forward.”

“Bernie Moreno has done a really good job trying to negotiate someplace, and he’s made it very clear that either the conference is going to be together or not,’ Mullin said. “And that’s not ‘together,’ like, we get all 53 votes, but does the majority of the conference support moving forward?”

Mullin said the House is “part of the conversations” as well, adding, “It doesn’t do us any good to have a bill here that doesn’t pass the House.”

Though a three-year-extension bill failed in the Senate last month, some senators think the House’s movement on the issue could at least serve as a catalyst to negotiate on health care in the upper chamber.

“If it passes, it’s an important political force to lead us to do something more in the Senate.” Durbin said.

Sen. Josh Hawley, a Republican who voted for the three-year extension last month that failed to advance, agreed that the House version could serve as a jumping-off point.

“That three-year bill would need a lot of work to pass, but we’ve got to start somewhere, obviously,” Hawley said. “I think that we cannot sit back and say that we hope for the best. We have to be proactive.”

Of course, some Democrats say the Senate should just take up the House bill as-is. Sen. Chris Murphy said he thought the House passing a bill could change the political dynamics.

“I’m always open for a negotiation, but the House is gonna pass a bill, so once they pass that bill there’s no reason for us not to take it up for a vote,” Murphy said. “If It fails, it fails, but I think the chances are if they brought that bill up for a vote in the Senate it would pass.”